Intel warrants their processors at stock speeds for three years of non-stop 24/7 usage-- the template for the marchitectural design is mission critical server and everything from laptop to desktop to server comes from this.
If you want your processor sample to last longer at stock speeds, simply use it less often: 12-hours a day over the course of six years, for instance. Overclocking, unfortunately, wears out the CPU faster than stock would; so to expect it to outlast stock speeds while overclocked is an oxymoron. You'd have to use it way less often just to last longer than it would at stock speeds.
You can estimate a processor's wear as a ratio of wattage, which is linear with frequency and squared with voltage. This means that the impact of overclocking isn't just about voltage, cranking up the frequency also impacts the effect of wear because it influences the current in the processor's circuit, increasing wattage power and heat even at the same voltages. So even if you kept the same voltages as stock speeds, you're still killing the life of the processor by bothering to increase the frequency manually.
For instance, overclocking a processor 40% above stock tends to double the wattage, which in turn cuts the lifespan in half. So instead of three years of 24/7 with 100% utilization, it becomes 18 months of 24/7; but if you want 6 years at 40% overclock, you shouldn't use it more than 6 hours a day.
Of course, in six years; that is greater than a motherboard, graphics card, RAM and some PSU's may not last that long.
Duke4
bcavnaugh
The "safe 24/7 voltage" is the Default setting and with no overclocking. Any setting above that will wear on your CPU.
Yes i know, but Intel says 1.35v max and 1.4 absolute max so i'd figure that 1.423v at 100 % load which I never utilize would not harm it or am i wrong?
Anything from Intel's website is only with regards to stock speed operation because that is all they really bin for; overclockable parts are just regular processors, unlocked, and sold for a premium; there is nothing special to them-- although some have convinced themselves that Intel must have binned it for them just because they overclock well; just like a girl that thinks a pair of jeans were made for her just because they fit so well.
Anyway, the reason Intel lists min/max VID ranges for voltage is because of fabrication quality, some processors run stock speed at lower voltages and typically sold as laptop/server parts or higher voltages as desktop parts. Once in a while Intel makes a processor that runs outside the VID range, they know it will not last their warranty of three years at nonstop 24/7 usage and the processor is discarded. Overclockers really can't use anything from Intel's website for our intentions; Intel seriously couldn't care less outside of finding ways to make us buy into them, i.e. XMP and unlocked processors.